1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for controlling the capacity usage of a logically partitioned data processing system comprising physical data processing resources that are divided into multiple logical partitions, wherein the capacity of the logical partitions is monitored to control the consumption of the physical data processing resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Capacity management enables information technology (IT) centers of companies to control the cost of their computing environment. In modem computing environments this is an autonomic function. Large computing systems allow installations to divide the physical processing resources into multiple logical computer systems. Methods have been developed to control the resource consumption of these logical computer systems thus enabling an installation to obtain a cost control mechanism for its infrastructure.
Currently it is possible to limit the CPU consumption of a single logical partition. If an installation uses the technique to limit the consumption of multiple partitions running on the same physical computer environment they can only control the CPU consumption for each logical partition individually. The disadvantage is that one logical partition might get capped because it exceeds its defined capacity limit while other logical partitions do not use their defined capacity. This can cause limitations to the work running on the capped partition while other partitions have plenty of unused capacity.